Giftedness in Education: Definitions, Theories, and Assessment

Introduction: The Study of Giftedness

The issue of giftedness — and the problematics of identifying and educating the gifted child — has raised concern and even contention in academic circles. The question of giftedness is also strongly related to the ongoing debate and research about human intelligence. Some critics note that in contemporary research, "giftedness and gifted education have somehow managed to escape comparable critical analysis" (Margolin, 1994, p. xiii). One reason given for this lack of focus is the dominance of studies on deviance and social problems in education, which has relegated giftedness to the periphery of modern educational and sociological discourse. This has resulted in a situation where "gifted education has been studied mostly by insiders with a stake in seeing gifted education continue: gifted child educators themselves" (Margolin, 1994, p. xiii).

This in turn raises questions about bias and objectivity in research in this area. While there is a large amount of debate and disagreement about the definition, meaning, assessment, and methods related to giftedness, there is also a degree of consensus on various aspects. For instance, "Educators in the field essentially agree on the importance of parents and family in the positive education and social development of gifted children" (Colangelo and Dettmann, 1983). There are many other areas in which the extensive research tends to converge rather than diverge. This paper presents an overview of the most relevant and current issues and topics being debated in this field.

The central purpose of this project is to explore the phenomenon of giftedness in terms of contemporary research and theory. A comprehensive overview of the literature is provided, with a focus on contemporary aspects of research and discourse. There are a wide range of theoretical concerns and often divergent views about giftedness, and this study discusses and presents the most important views on the subject. The project is also concerned with the explication of the problematics of identification and assessment that form such an important part of the study of the gifted child.

Defining Giftedness

There is a certain amount of contention about the definition of giftedness in the literature. A common perception of the term is as follows: "Giftedness is that precious endowment of potentially outstanding abilities which allows a person to interact with the environment with remarkably high levels of achievement and creativity" (Giftedness and the Gifted: What's it All About?). This rather effusive definition is itself an indicator of the difficulty of defining giftedness. A more reasoned and comprehensive view was provided by former U.S. Commissioner of Education Sidney P. Marland, Jr., who stated in his August 1971 report to Congress:

Gifted and talented children are those identified by professionally qualified persons who, by virtue of outstanding abilities, are capable of high performance. These are children who require differentiated educational programs and/or services beyond those normally provided by the regular school program in order to realize their contribution to self and society. (Marland, 1972)

The above definition expands the understanding of giftedness in two important ways: it emphasizes the importance of qualified professional identification, and it recognizes that gifted children have distinct educational requirements. The same report continued to define giftedness in terms of ability across the following categories: specific academic aptitude; creative or productive thinking; leadership ability; visual or performing arts; and psychomotor ability.

Much of the contention in the literature concerns the assertion that "giftedness" is a construct of educationists and other authorities rather than a discovered quality in itself. This view brings to bear various sociological and educational biases that may exist in the definition of the gifted child. As Borland (1997) argues, "giftedness, especially in children and adolescents in the schools, is something we as a field have constructed or invented through our writing and talking, not something that we have discovered" (p. 7). He elaborates:

To state that a construct is socially constructed is to state that it gains its meaning, even its existence, from people's interactions, especially their discourse. Concepts and constructs that are socially constructed thus acquire their properties and their influence through the give and take of social interaction, not through the slow accretion of empirical facts about a preexisting entity, at least not exclusively. (Borland, 1997, p. 7)

This perspective is useful in contemporary theory because it explores the assumption that giftedness is a construct that has changed over time — that its meaning has been constructed differently across different periods, cultures, and social environments. Borland notes that "the construct of giftedness has undergone significant changes in recent times" (1997, p. 13). He also refers to modern theorists of intelligence such as Howard Gardner and his Theory of Multiple Intelligences, which contradicts the hierarchical view and the privileging of certain intelligences over others.

Another view that sheds light on the definition of giftedness is offered by Porter (2005). In line with these comments, Porter explains that the hierarchical view of giftedness is no longer tenable: "In the past, there was a hierarchical view of giftedness and talent which upheld that giftedness referred to academic skills while talent referred to nonacademic abilities — for example, in the fine arts. But this hierarchy cannot stand up to scrutiny" (p. 4). This extends the concept of giftedness beyond purely academic achievement. "Artistic expression is as central to the artist's personhood as academic achievement is to the intellectual. It is hoped that both will be a means for self-fulfillment, so one talent simply cannot be of less value than the other" (Porter, 2005, p. 4). From this perspective, giftedness is defined as "exceptional innate ability" and the potential to excel (Porter, 2005, p. 4).

Theoretical Frameworks for Understanding Giftedness

Definitions of giftedness are related to various theoretical paradigms that attempt to understand and explain this educational and developmental phenomenon. One view is that giftedness is a form of mental self-management (Sternberg and Wagner, 1982). This theory sees the key to intellectual giftedness as residing in insight and skills that encompass three main processes: adapting to environments, selecting new environments, and shaping environments. Within this framework, the gifted individual is adept at "separating relevant from irrelevant information… combining isolated pieces of information into a unified whole, and… relating newly acquired information to information acquired in the past." This view frames giftedness in terms of problem-solving abilities as well as the capacity to process and integrate information creatively.

Another prominent view, put forward by Joseph Renzulli (1986), states that giftedness and gifted behavior depend largely on the interaction among three basic clusters of human traits: above-average general and/or specific abilities, high levels of task commitment (motivation), and high levels of creativity. According to Renzulli, "gifted and talented children are those who possess or are capable of developing this composite of traits and applying them to any potentially valuable area of human performance."

Theories about gifted individuals are often divided into two general categories in the literature: conjunctive and disjunctive views of giftedness. The disjunctive view refers to the multitrait conception of giftedness advocated by Borland (1989) and others, and is related to the United States Office of Education and multiple intelligences frameworks. In the disjunctive approach, one is gifted if one has a high level in any of the abilities associated with giftedness: "One is gifted if one has a high level of this ability or if one has a high level of that ability, and so forth" (Borland, 1997, p. 14). In essence, "disjunctive definitions imply that there are different and distinct forms of giftedness and lead to the logical conclusion that programs must be multifaceted to address these various kinds of giftedness adequately" (Borland, 1997, p. 14). In the view of some educationists, this stance poses practical problems for curriculum development and identification, as it is obviously more difficult to identify gifted children across a wide range of intelligence types, each with different criteria.

Conjunctive theories and perceptions of giftedness are more integrative and holistic. Renzulli's model is one such example: all three clusters of traits — ability, task commitment, and creativity — must be present to constitute creative-productive giftedness, so "a single profile, composed of multiple traits, emerges. This convergence makes identification and curriculum development much simpler than it is when disjunctive conceptions are used" (Borland, 1997, p. 14).

Another conjunctive view is Sternberg's (1988) triarchic theory of intelligence, composed of three subtheories: a contextual subtheory, an experiential subtheory, and a componential subtheory. Each component presents an essential aspect of human intelligence. Sternberg suggests that "we view intelligence theories in terms of the metaphors on which they are based: geographic, computational, biological, epistemological, anthropological, sociological, and systems" (Plucker, 2001). This contrasts with the approach of Gardner and others, who attempt "to classify these theories based on their dominant perspective: psychometric, developmental, biological, cognitive" (Plucker, 2001). The triarchic theory, while theoretically complex, is noted as gaining momentum among educationists.

An informative book that aids in understanding the range of theories on giftedness and provides a global perspective is Talent in Context: Historical and Social Perspectives on Giftedness by Friedman and Rogers (1998). The book deals with five central themes: the interaction between social and historical forces in the development of talent; the identification of talent from an interdisciplinary perspective; the expression of talent from multiple contexts; the influence of significant others on high-level production; and the idea of expertise as a prototype within the conceptualization of giftedness and talent (Kendrick, 2001, p. 243). Notably, the book's third section on conceptualizing and reconceptualizing giftedness identifies three perspectives in the development of gifts and talents from childhood through adulthood, summarizes and integrates nine views of expertise and relates each to giftedness, and provides a historical approach to talent development by debunking myths and offering models for its continued study (Kendrick, 2001, p. 243).

Conclusion

Contemporary views on assessment include portfolio assessment, observation, and dynamic assessment (Borland, 1997, p. 16). The underlying trajectory in these new forms of assessment is based on the recognition that conventional notions of objectivity may not be adequate. As Borland (1997) states: "The constructs and abilities underlying certain important aspects of school performance may not be as stable or objectifiable as once thought" (p. 16). There seems to be a growing trend away from so-called objective modes of assessment. As Borland further argues:

In fact, the term "objective" has been desanctified and no longer is universally, and erroneously, used as a synonym for valid. The idea that human judgment, as subjective as it might be, may prove to be a more valid means of assessing some constructs of interest to educators than are objective measures is steadily gaining ground. (Borland, 1997, p. 16)

Methods such as consensual assessment have been used as a means of reducing the biases inherent in stringent objective approaches. However, positivist and quantitative approaches remain dominant in education. There is a growing consensus that standard objective tests for giftedness should be supplemented by more interactive and contextual methods. Researchers like Borland note that educationists should become more aware of how their own biases and assumptions shape the assessment of giftedness: "New thinking about assessment may shape our thinking about the construct" (Borland, 1997, p. 16). This view also relates to a more postmodernist approach to assessment — one that acknowledges multiple, relative realities rather than fixed, predetermined ones.

Until fairly recently, giftedness was largely relegated to the sidelines of intensive research in education. However, with the discoveries in the field of intelligence by scholars such as Howard Gardner, there has been an intensification in research on the meaning, identification, and assessment of giftedness. There is also an increasing awareness of the complexity of this subject. Educators agree that the identification and nurturing of giftedness should not be limited to the school alone. There is greater understanding of the role that family, peers, and environment play: "Educators in the field essentially agree on the importance of parents and family in the positive education and social development of gifted children" (Borland, 1997, p. 13). Research has also shown the importance of healthy parent–child relationships in nurturing the gifted child.

One of the most significant outcomes in contemporary research on giftedness is the realization of the relativity of its definitions and assessments. There is an increasing body of research devoted to questions of relativity in assessment and identification, particularly in light of the acceptance of different types of intelligence, which has "spawned programs in which educators attempt to identify giftedness in each of the putative intelligences" (Borland, 1997, p. 13). This means that some researchers suggest each type of intelligence requires a different set of procedures for identifying giftedness — a position that in turn raises numerous practical and theoretical problems for educators.

In the final analysis, the literature on giftedness presents a wide range of views and theories that attempt to address modern perceptions of this subject. The works of Howard Gardner and others have opened up new views of human intelligence and adopted a more holistic approach, which has had a profound effect on the understanding and modern interpretation of giftedness. While many competing theories and views exist, it is clear that there is still some way to go before a definitive, comprehensive theory of giftedness can be achieved.